Oil companies transporting crude by rail issued govt safety plea

The US Department of Transportation has issued a safety advisory pleading with companies that transport crude oil by train to discontinue old railcars, a request that comes after a string of high-profile derailment accidents.

The advisory is non-binding, meaning it does not require
companies to follow it, as an emergency order would. Yet it does
apply to approximately 20,000 old tanker cars that companies rely
on to carry Bakken crude from oil fields in North Dakota
throughout the continent. The Transportation Department (DOT)
recommended that only the sturdiest cars available are put to
use, and that cars that cannot be destroyed should be updated.

Wednesday’s advisory came on the same day that the Transportation
Department issued an emergency order forcing companies to provide
communities alongside the rail routes with more information about
the problems that are created when a spill or explosion takes
place.

The American Petroleum Institute told the Wall Street Journal that the oil industry has
already spent three years trying to update old cars, predicting
that over the next year “about 60 percent of railcars will be
state of the art, which is part of a long-term comprehensive
effort to improve accident prevention, mitigation and emergency
response.”

Still, the advisory immediately came under attack. Senator Maria
Cantwell (D-Washington) told Transportation Secretary Anthony
Foxx at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing that the advisory is
adequate, though only as a first step.

“If we know that we want to get rid of these [cars] that we
don’t think are a safe transport vehicle, we should come up with
a date,” she said. “Making it voluntary isn’t
enough.”

The DOT itself admitted crude shipments present “an imminent
hazard” in an emergency order forcing companies to be more
transparent with the areas they go through. Trains carrying oil
generally include at least 100 cars. The emergency order requires
all carloads with more than one million gallons of Bakken crude,
equivalent to approximately 35 cars, to give local lawmakers
notice that a train will be making its way through.

In response, the Association of American Railroads issuing a
statement saying that freight lines have “for years worked
with emergency responders and personnel to educate and inform
them about the hazardous materials moving through their
communities,” and that such “open and transparent
communications” will go on, as quoted by Politico.

Companies shipping oil by rail have never been forced to notify
communities regarding hazardous material on board until this
week.

An estimated 715,000 barrels of Bakken crude oil are shipped by
rail every day.

Foxx said the measures put in place Wednesday are only intended
to be one of many steps toward preventing dangerous wrecks in the
future. Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) praised the effort
while advising that “these outdated tank cars are ticking
time bombs, and local first responders need to know when they are
coming and what they are carrying so they can be adequately
prepared for any scenario.”

The announcements come as volunteers in Lynchburg, Virginia
continue to clean up the aftermath of an accident in which 17
cars of a 105-car train derailed, with three falling into a river
and spilling 20,000 gallons into the water. No one was injured in
the incident, although much of the downtown area was evacuated
while flames and smoke plumes filled the sky.

Even before the accident, though, the National Transportation
Safety Board was calling for stricter safety standards on oil
transportation.

“We are very clear that this issue needs to be acted on very
quickly. There is a very high risk here that hasn’t been
addressed,” NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman told reporters
after a forum last month. “They aren’t moving fast
enough.”

Hersman stepped down just days after the forum let out but told
US News and World Report that during her time
as chairman that few events – not even the Lac-Megantic
derailment and explosion in Montreal, Quebec last year that
killed nearly 50 people last year – were enough to convince her
fellow bureaucrats to make the necessary changes.

“This is a tombstone mentality,” she explained. “We
know the steps that will prevent or mitigate these accidents.
What is missing is the will to require people to do so.”